Spokesman Books

War Against War! found a spot among The Observer 's Books of the Year 2014.  Paul Mason, Economics Editor at Channel 4 News, recently reviewed it as part of a reflection on war journalism - w e are excited that he has now given it a further commendation in this feature. His comments on War Against War! , printed on Sunday 30th November, read as follows: 'My favourite book of 2014 is the newly reissued facsimile of War Against War! (Spokesman Books) by Ernst Friedrich; first published in 1924, it showed the shocking pictorial truth about the injuries and devastation of the first world war. It was great preparation for reporting on the Gaza conflict...' *** War Against War!  by Ernst Friedrich is available from Spokesman Books at: http://www.spokesmanbooks.com/acatalog/shop.html [scroll down]

Paul Mason of The Guardian reviews  War Against War! , published by Spokesman, in his piece 'Horrific pictures of dead bodies won't stop wars' (23 November 2014).  'Friedrich’s work represented a breakthrough. Before then, imagery of war had been subject to absolute censorship during conflict and diluted for the sake of “taste and decency” by the media during peacetime.' Mason juxtaposes Friedrich's intentions in publishing this graphically illustrated book against the frustrations of contemporary war journalists and photographers; w hereas ' the first world war was begun in ignorance about the horrors of war', now  ' a disbelieving public has come to see all graphic imagery of war as potentially fake, manipulated or propagandist.' The full article is available to read online here: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/23/horrific-pictures-of-dead-bodies-wont-stop-wars War Against War! by Ernst Friedrich is available fro...

Peace News , August 2014 Review by Gabriel Carlyle A. W. Zurbrugg (ed), Not Our War: Writings Against the First World War (Merlin Press, 2014; 264pp; £12.95) / Ernst Friedrich, War against war! (Spokesman, 2014; 242pp; £9.99) In the UK, the centenary of the First World War has already prompted a deluge of books, events and media coverage. The BBC alone has announced 2,500 hours of programmes, which – like 99% of the mainstream response – will doubtless run the A to B of the mainstream political spectrum. True, Thatcherite historian and apologist for imperialisms past and present, Niall Ferguson, was granted 90 mins on BBC2 to argue that Britain should have stayed out of the war, at least at the outset. In his view, it was ‘a great mistake’. Even this had to be ‘balanced’ by an hour-long slot with former Telegraph editor Max Hastings, arguing that Britain’s participation was ‘tragically necessary’. Almost completely absent, it seems, are the voices and arguments of those s...

BOOK LAUNCH ‘Writings against the First World War’ with BRUCE KENT  on Ernst Friedrich’s anarchist classic,   War Against War! and TONY ZURBRUGG  editor of   Not Our War Writings against the First World War 7pm, Wednesday 18th June, Housmans Bookshop,  5 Caledonian Road, King’s Cross, London N1 9DX nearest Tube: King’s Cross   www.housmans.com As the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War approaches, you are cordially invited to an evening of discussion at Housmans Bookshop, which will host a joint launch of: War Against War! published by Spokesman as a facsimile reprint of Ernst Friedrich’s original and hard-to-find photographic record and multilingual commentary on the carnage of the First World War. It was originally published in Berlin in 1924 under the title Krieg dem Kriege!  Bruce Kent’s new introduction considers Friedrich’s lifelong work for peace and revolutionary change. ...